The Craft
Designing and building Quicksilver is a major technical challenge. An impressive array of talent exists to meet that challenge. Top-level engineering personnel, supported by highly motivated fund raisers and sponsors with not only the know-how and facilities, but also the commitment, to achieve the goal. This team of engineers, supporters and sponsors has been built up steadily and methodically over a period of many years, in order to meet each successive objective on the way to the Record.
In common with all very-high-speed waterborne craft, Quicksilver will skim over the water rather than plough through it. Achieving a rapid transition from the "displacement condition" (in the water) to the "planing condition" (on the water) has been a critical design challenge, because Coniston Water - with a usable length of five miles - offers a sufficient, but not generous, course distance.
Hull shapes optimised for very high speeds are not usually conducive to making the displacement-to-planing transition rapidly, so a carefully balanced compromise has been necessary.
Quicksilver weighs 3.5 tonnes and is 12.87 metres long, 3.33 metres wide and 2.9 metres high. The craft is 50% bigger and 50% heavier than Bluebird, but has over twice the power of Bluebird.